Monday, June 30, 2014

Alliance for Green
Heat - A Maryland program that provides rebates for select pellet stoves
and EPA certified wood stoves has been an overwhelming success for
pellet stoves. Of the 773 rebates given
since the program started in September 2012, 646 or 83% of them have been for
pellet stoves.

To date, the Maryland program has provided nearly $400,000
in rebate grants for pellet stoves and $67,000 for wood stoves.The program is only open to families who heat
with oil, propane or electricity in order to target those who have highest
heating costs and the most carbon intensive fuels.

The wood and pellet stove grant program is quickly catching
up with the Maryland solar and geothermal grant programs, with 28% of all grants
going to wood and pellet stoves and nearly 15% of total funding. The rebates
range from $500 for wood stoves and solar hot water to $3,000 for geothermal. All of the programs
are designed and managed by the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) with input
from stakeholders and funded from Strategic Energy Investment Fund (SEIF), part of the
Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).

“These results show that rebates for pellet stoves can help
a state meet residential carbon and electricity reduction goals,” said John
Ackerly, the President of the Alliance for Green Heat and one of the advocates
for this program.“Per dollar of state
funds invested, this has enabled Maryland to help many more families reduce
energy costs and drastically reduce their fossil fuel use,” Ackerly added.

The greater interest in pellet stoves is result of a
combination of factors, including people using the rebate to upgrade from an
old, uncertified wood stove to a pellet stove, a higher rebate amount for
pellet stoves and not as many wood stoves qualifying for the program’s 3-gram per
hour emission requirement. Pellet stoves are held to 2-gram an hour emission limit.

Another factor is that pellet stoves are simply becoming
more popular in Maryland as they are nationally. The state has one of the
premier pellet stove dealers in the nation and a full 58% of the 79 wood and
pellet stove grants listed one month were being handled by that dealer,
Courtland Hearth & Hardware, that has 3 stores in northeast Maryland.

On a per capita basis, the rebate program has been most
popular in Harford County and Maryland’s rural eastern shore, a peninsula
between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic that has very little natural gas
penetration.On a numerical basis, the
most rebates are in Harford, Anne Arundel and Baltimore County, more heavily
populated counties that also have higher median household incomes and can better
afford the up front costs of purchasing and installing a stove.Garrett County, one of Maryland’s counties
with the lowest average household income and the highest rate of wood heating,
had very few participants in the rebate program and they were only one of two
counties that favored wood over pellet stoves.

In Maryland, the western counties and the Eastern shore have the lowest average household incomes and the center, which is part of the Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia corridor are the wealthiest, with the exception of inner city Baltimore. This corridor also has very high rates of national gas penetration.

Unlike many programs in other states and areas, where wood
smoke is a worse problem, the Maryland program does not require the homeowner
to turn in an old uncertified stove to qualify for a rebate. Nevertheless, according to several stove
retailers, between 50% and 75% of old uncertified stoves are removed and
recycled anyway. Recyclers usually pay $25 - $40 for old wood stoves. This indicates that a rebate program that
requires professional installation can be an inexpensive way to remove old wood
stoves from the airshed compared to many change out programs, which tend to be
more expensive.

The $500 - $700 rebate from the state helps Maryland achieve
several objectives.Other than helping
people replace or significantly reduce fossil heating fuel, it also steers
people to pellet stoves instead of wood ones and leads consumers to buy a
cleaner stove and ensures that it is professionally installed and/or inspected,
depending on permit and inspection requirements of the county. Without the rebate, it is more likely that more
consumers may buy off the second hand market, or buy higher emitting wood or
pellet stove, or hang on to an older stove for longer.

From a carbon perspective, incenting the purchase of wood
and pellet stoves can be a very good investment as a wood or pellet stove is often about 10% of the cost of solar or geothermal and can
displace about the same amount of fossil fuel as the typical solar or geothermal installation. Pellet stovesGenerally, pellet stoves are more
likely to be a primary or sole heat source for a home because they can be
easily run 24/7.

From an emissions perspective, pellet stoves are clearly
better than wood because the fuel size is small, it has consistent low moisture
content and is fed into a more controlled combustion chamber. By limiting the rebate to
homes that heat with electricity, oil or propane, the program effectively
limits the vast majority of participants to rural areas, where stove emissions
are not as problematic.

Nationally, wood stoves have always outsold pellet stoves,
but pellet stoves have twice come close to selling more than wood stoves
annually.Over the five years preceding
2013, manufacturers shipped an average of 90,000 pellet stoves per year versus
137,000 wood stoves, according to data from the industry association, the Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association (HPBA).

Sampling of data from
applications:

The MEA provided the Alliance for Green Heat with a sampling
of data from 110 applications.This data
helps the MEA and other stakeholders understand which fossil fuels are being
offset, what applicants do with old wood stoves and other metrics that can help
assess the strengths and weaknesses of the program. It appears that the fossil
fuel most commonly displaced was electricity, which was twice as common as oil
and propane.It is unclear if electric
heating means electric resistance heat or a heat pump and that has a large
bearing on the amount of electricity reduced.Many Marylanders have older, inefficient heat pumps that work poorly in
very cold temperatures.

The application does not ask if the person intended the new
stove to be a primary or secondary heat source or whether an old wood or pellet
stove being replaced was a primary or secondary heat source.That will be one of the recommendations the
Alliance makes to the MEA about future data collection to provide better
metrics for the program.

Of the 110 applications, 33 of the households already had an
older stove. What is surprising is that Pellet stoves have
many moving parts and are not as durable as wood stoves and often need to be
replaced every 10 – 15 years.Of the 33 households
with existing stoves, nearly 60% had their old one recycled or otherwise
disposed of.Six of them, or 18%, sold
them on the second hand market, including a few old pellet stoves.And 3 people kept their old wood stove
installed as an emergency back-up heat for their new pellet stove. Nearly
half of these households already had a pellet stove and wanted to upgrade to a
newer pellet stove.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

A green building standard in Australia has
assigned very low carbon values for wood and pellet heating, which will
encourage builders and architects to specify wood heating, because it is now a
cost effective means of achieving points toward the green building. The
standard, called BASIX stands for the Building Sustainability Index
(BASIX) and aims to deliver equitable, effective water and greenhouse gas
reductions across the state. BASIX is one of the strongest sustainable
planning measures to be undertaken in Australia. The US equivalent is LEED, Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design, and overseen by the US Green Building Council,
which is also grappling with how to assign points to wood and pellet heating systems
in LEED certified homes and buildings.From
the Firewood Association of Australia – This relates to New South Wales (NSW)
building regulations, but the science behind it applies everywhere, wherever
there are restrictions on using wood fires, or campaigns against the
environmental credentials of firewood.

NSW BASIX, the Building and Sustainability
Index, is an integral part of the planning system in NSW. All new dwellings and
alterations/additions over $50,000 in NSW must have a BASIX certificate before
they can be approved by the council. It has taken seven years but we have
finally achieved a major change in the BASIX rules, which, instead of
discriminating against wood fires, now gives them a significant advantage.

Here is how it all happened, and what it
means. In August 2007 we sent a letter to the NSW
Department of Planning that set out our case for a decrease in the “greenhouse
factor” that is used for wood heaters within the on-line rating tool used to
generate BASIX certificates. We felt that wood heaters were unfairly prejudiced
in the rating system by being given the same “greenhouse” emissions rating as a
4 Star gas heater, when it had been confirmed by the 2003 CSIRO Life Cycle
Analysis that firewood was (practically) a greenhouse neutral heating fuel. The
department’s response to our letter was that they could not accept firewood as
being greenhouse neutral because the 2003 CSIRO study did not include an
assessment of non-CO2 greenhouse gases like methane and carbon monoxide.The FAA subsequently contacted the CSIRO
research team that had carried out the 2003 analysis. They eventually agreed to
revise and extend their initial study to include carbon monoxide and methane.
The results were formally published by CSIRO in April 2012 in a scientific
journal (see the article on the front page of the FAA web site). The revised
life cycle analysis showed that the greenhouse effect of non-CO2 gas emissions
from firewood is minimal.

Following the, we approached the Department
of Planning again to request that they re-consider a revision of the BASIX
rating for wood heaters. This time we received a more positive response and the
team from the Department’s Sustainability Unit agreed to consider our detailed
submission.

Finally on the 10th of June 2014,
after almost 18 months of negotiation with the DPI Sustainability Unit, the
BASIX on-line rating tool was updated to reflect a very much reduced emission
factor for wood heaters. As noted in previous issues of the FAA e-news, the
proposed change was strenuously opposed by the NSW EPA because they are funding
a local government campaign to reduce the number of wood heaters in the State.

Because of the complexity of the BASIX system
the impact of this change on any individual rating assessment is a little
difficult to quantify precisely, but it will have the effect of making wood
heaters much better than a 5 Star gas heater or a 6 Star reverse cycle air
conditioner and in fact better than every other type of domestic heating including
ground source heat pumps.

One of the likely outcomes of this change is
that builders and architects will be encouraged to specify wood heating, simply
because it is now the most cost effective means of achieving the required BASIX
target.

Obviously manufacturers and retailers of wood
heaters will be the big winners from this change. However, from a firewood
industry perspective there will undoubtedly be an increased demand for wood,
even if some of the new wood heaters are only used occasionally. The other main
benefit for both sectors of the wood heating industry is that we have finally
got formal government acknowledgement of the greenhouse benefits of firewood,
which is something that the entire industry can use to its advantage.

The next thing to do is to make sure that we
effectively communicate and promote what is truly a landmark win for wood
heating. To get the ball rolling the FAA is obtaining quotes from commercial
marketing organisations in NSW for the preparation and delivery of an integrated
and targeted marketing strategy. When we are in possession of these quotes the
FAA will invite all parties with a vested interest in the NSW wood industry to
attend a meeting where the detailed ramifications of the rating change can be
explained and a marketing strategy can be agreed.

We would like to express our thanks to the
team from the DPI Sustainability Unit for their cooperation in what has been a
long and challenging process. Our thanks also go to Joel Belnick of Jetmaster
Fireplaces (Aust) Pty Ltd for his encouragement and assistance.

Friday, June 6, 2014

Updated on August 22, 2016 - Most people who heat with wood or pellets do so partly because it saves them money. To
demonstrate this, stove manufacturers and retailers often include heating fuel
calculators on their websites so consumers can estimate their actual savings. So far so good. The problem is that unlike fossil fuel
furnaces, wood and pellet stove efficiencies are reported in a variety of ways
and most stove manufacturer calculators are biased. If you
are a consumer, this blog will help you find reliable calculators and reliable
typical efficiencies of hearth products.

The Alliance for Green Heat reviewed scores of the most popular fuel calculators and found many of them to be hard to use and biased. Not surprisingly, we found that most heat
calculators on commercial sites were biased in favor of the fuel or the stove technology that they
were connected with.Of the dozens of
calculators we reviewed, we recommend two that are good for calculating savings with wood and pellet heating appliances: the USDA Forest Service and Hearth.com. (We used to also recommend the Energy Information Agency calculator, but they removed it because of too many controversies over efficiency values, especially from the air source heat pump sector.)

1. Hearth.com, is run by independent hearth professionals and uses efficiency values that are based on available data, extensive knowledge and experience. The efficiency values are on the conservative side, reflecting estimated real world efficiency over time. Users enter their own price for cord wood or pellets and then can use the suggested efficiencies provided by Hearth.com. Unlike the USDA calculator, hearth.com uses an estimated 60% efficiency for EPA certified non-cat stoves and for older, uncertified stoves they estimated between 25 and 50% efficiency, depending on if its air tight or not. They provide realistic estimate of 55 - 65% efficiency for uncertified pellet stoves and 65 - 80% for certified pellet stoves.

2. The newly updated USDA Forest Service calculator is notable for including estimated values for both commercial and residential wood and pellet systems. Like hearth.com, it also provides more options for wood and pellet heaters, such as for uncertified (exempt) pellet stoves, so we recommend it over the EIA calculator. It also uses the outdated EPA default efficiencies, so we recommend using the updated efficiencies below, or the more conservative ones in hearth.com.

We think it’s important for heating fuel calculators to be
transparent and show what stove efficiencies and fuel prices they are using, something
many industry calculators usually don’t do.While consumers can easily put in their own fuel costs, it is usually
impossible for a consumer to put in an accurate efficiency level of a
particular stove. Few major US manufacturer provide a reliable efficiency of their stoves to
their consumers that are clearly American (HHV), not European (LHV) heating
values. Consumers should not rely on the efficiency numbers posted by manufacturers. We encourage consumers to use the average efficiency values listed
below.

Many fuel calculators that focus on wood and pellet stoves do
not disclose the efficiency numbers they use in the calculation so the
consumer cannot know what the values and assumptions are.Harman,
Quadrafire
and Travis
calculators are a good example of this. HPBA and most industry calculators do not include a separate efficiency value for catalytic stoves, which have consistently higher efficiencies if they are used properly.

Data on Efficiency

There are some datasets based on standardized wood stoves testing.Studies from Houck & Tiegs, Robert
Ferguson, and OMNI labs are among the best sources available as of now (they are
listed below).Those studies and data
sets indicate that non-cat stoves average between 68 and 72% efficient,
significantly above the 63% EPA default efficiency that was set in the late
1980s.There is little data on catalytic
stoves, but we think the EPA default of 72% may not be too far off the
mark.We suspect the average today may
be in the 75% range, and the most efficient ones that are listed on the
EPA list average around 80%.

Theold EPA default of 78% efficiency for pellet stoves is by
far the most misunderstood, because that 78% only applied to EPA certified
pellet stoves, not their less efficient cousins, the exempt pellet stoves.We now know that the default efficiency was too high for both certified and uncertified pellet stoves. New, certified pellet stoves average about 72% efficiency. An OMNI study found the average to be 68% and EPA tests referred to in
paper by Jim Houck estimate 56% for exempt pellet stoves.There is extensive misleading
information about pellet stove efficiency not only from industry, but also
from some US government sites.

Efficiencies of Phase 2 EPA qualified boilers range from 39%
to 78%, with an average of 65% according to the EPA list of boilers.An Intertek report cited a 55% average
efficiency for Phase 2 boilers and the State of Maine gave them a 65% average.Efficiencies for European pellet boilers
certified to the EN303-5 standard are likely to be in the 75 – 85% range,
although some that are oversized or without any thermal storage could be lower.

Non-cat wood stoves tend to be bunched between 65 - 75% efficiency. However, pellet stoves can range from 45 - 80% efficiency. Higher efficiency ones are more likely to be the EPA certified or the European pellet stoves. Unlike non-cat and pellet stoves, catalytic stoves are much more likely to have reliable, actual efficiency levels posted on the EPA certified stove list and that is an excellent resource to select one of the highest efficiency catalytic stoves on the market today.

Wood stove efficiencies discussed here are derived from tests in strictly controlled lab settings. For consumers, to get similar, optimal efficiencies it is vital to use seasoned wood (about 20% moisture content).

Our Recommendations

Our recommendations for heating fuel calculator efficiencies reflect values of a new appliance when it is being used with seasoned wood. After a year or two, appliances can lose 5 - 15 points in efficiency if they are not properly maintained, particularly boilers, pellet stoves and cat stoves which need periodic cleaning to maintain the average efficiencies listed below: